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Chargement... Property of A Lady (2011)par Sarah Rayne
Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Changing my original 3 star overall to a 2 star. I really enjoyed the first third or so, found it creepy, with an interesting storyline that pulled me in. Middle third started became pretty contrived, to many coincidences and stubmling upon information at just the right moment. The final third just made me angry. Ugh. Just ugh. The more I've thought about this book, the more it rankles, hence the changed star rating. Throw in the inconsistencies and the enjoyment of the first third can't make up for the rest of it. I really enjoyed this ghostly tale about Charect House and its former residents. Michael Flint's American friends have inherited the place and they ask him to go and oversee renovation works for them. After encountering some strange goings-on, he meets local antiques dealer, Nell West and together they try to find out what links the house and young girls going missing. I thought this was a really good story and probably the most plausible ghost story I have read. I find suspending belief very difficult but I didn't really need to with this book. There's also a good deal of historical story and looking into the past which I liked. Some of the dialogue was a bit naff but not enough to spoil my enjoyment. I'm looking forward to reading the second in this series. Property of a Lady is the first in a series of ghost stories written by one of my favourite authors Sarah Rayne, featuring characters Nell West and Michael Flint. Michael Flint is an academic living in Oxford and is asked by friends based in the USA to look at an old house they've just inherited. When Michael sees Charect House, he becomes interested in its history and stumbles across a mystery that goes back generations. Michael enlists the help of local antiques dealer Nell West who is buying back the original furniture belonging to the once grand house, and the two begin to dig into the past together. Nell's daughter is having terrible nightmares about a man with no eyes, the same dream that is terrorising the daughter of his American friends. Property of a Lady is a modern day ghost story with characters employing straight forward sleuthing techniques to get to the bottom of the tragedies that occurred inside Charect House several generations ago. Together they discover letters, diaries and other source material that is expertly drip fed into the story in a believable fashion and at just the right time. The connections and mysteries take Michael and Nell to a prison, and to an asylum both of which give the novel a creepy ghostly feel, but mostly it's about unravelling sad tragedies of the past. I read Property of a Lady at lighting pace, and from a reader's perspective felt it was perfect in every way. Visit my original review for a link to download the first chapter for free: http://www.carpelibrum.net/2013/07/review-property-of-lady-sarah-rayne.html Do you want your standard ghost story set in a dilapidated English manor? This one has it all: graveyards, necromancy, people walled up alive, a grandfather clock crammed with documents, and of course rapping and tapping. The ghosts are hunted by Oxford professor Michael Flint and newly widowed antiques dealer Nell West, who are both assisting the hapless Americans who have inherited this very special house. Romance is in the air almost immediately, but it's not laid on too thick for us non-romantics. I want to make fun of this book, but actually it really hit the spot. The narrative is reminiscent of Wilkie Collins - thanks to those documents in the clock and other letters and diaries helpfully left behind by the dead. It's cleverly plotted, occasionally quite creepy, and it's set in Shropshire. What more could you want? aucune critique | ajouter une critique
Appartient à la sérieFlint (1)
Fantasy.
Fiction.
Horror.
Thriller.
HTML: "An inventively plotted, goose-bumps inducing ghost story" (Booklist). Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)823.92Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 2000-Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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However, the story feels a bit lackluster. It's alright to read, but it never gets terribly exciting or engrossing. Part of me is sometimes amazed how "suddenly" diaries and secret papers just happen to be found by the right people so fast when no one else has discovered them. Yes, I'm a born cynical. Sometimes it's believable, and sometimes, not so. In Property of a Lady, well I can take it because the place has been uninhabited so long, and the clock, well it's been away from the house as well for a long time. So that at least did not annoy me. Thankfully.
The story about the "ghost" is actually quite tragic, more tragical than horrifying. I was a bit surprised by the turn towards the end of the book, it was a nice twist. It's an OK book, not especially memorable, but if you like a cozy paranormal book is it not so bad.
Would I read more books in the series? Yes I would, it was not a bad book, I was not bored. However, I hope the stories get better, and perhaps even a bit more horrifying? ( )